Connecting Mid Canterbury Charitable Trust, established by Kate White in 2017, runs two initiatives to grow and support healthy, resilient and connected communities – the Mid Canterbury TimeBank and Keep Learning Mid Canterbury.

Keep Learning Mid Canterbury (KLMC) organises around 40 talks and workshops every year. They are open to everybody and most are free. Workshops for this year include flax-weaving, suicide prevention, digital detox, and regular cultural cooking sessions. In the first term that was A Taste of the Philippines and A Taste of Argentina – cook it and share it.

They’ve held many panel discussions, for example with people from different religious backgrounds and people with disabilities. There have been workshops on topics like knowing your rights, KiwiSaver, zero waste, death and dying, reducing your power bills and astronomy. The focus is non-vocational (the Ashburton Learning Centre is a super provider of ACE that supports people into work). While some workshops such as a flax weaving wānanga can last up to two days, most are one-off talks or workshops. Covid restrictions have meant that some of these have been held online.

KLMC is Ashburton-based but also organises events in local rural towns such as Methven, Mount Somers, and Rakaia. When it comes to delivering learning experiences, collaboration helps reduce expenses and increases the reach. For example, the Ashburton Art Gallery collaborates with KLMC to deliver a Get Creative workshop each term. This is usually linked to a current exhibition at the gallery. Last year the Fafetu in Action workshop was linked to a Tuvaluan exhibition. People of all ages and cultures came along to create their own stars using different coloured wool, on wooden boards with nails in them. There was also an event that gave people a taste of all sorts of art and craft, including landscape watercolour painting, collage and pottery.

For three years the Keep Learning initiative was focused on creating a programme of ten events each term, often in collaboration with others. Then last year, on the way home from the ACE conference, Kate White had an idea that she hoped would help more Mid Canterbury people to keep learning.

“I had this brainwave. Why not establish a platform where everyone in the district can list their learning events? It’s actually amazing what goes on in our relatively small district – yet people don’t always know about the opportunities. So often they read about them in the paper after they’ve happened.”

Making it happen ended up quite easily. Serendipitous conversations resulted in student interns from Otago Polytechnic developing the website – for free.

So now the community has one place that lists everything from the digital learning opportunities offered by the library, to budgeting courses, art classes, sports opportunities, parenting workshops, and beginners bridge lessons. There’s also a link to the CAB on the website.

And there’s a link to Connecting Mid- Canterbury’s TimeBank.

Last year the TimeBank’s 200 plus members engaged in over 800 exchanges as well as 12 large social gatherings and 18 other meetups – all open to the wider community.

Connecting Mid Canterbury carries out an annual survey and produces an informative Annual Report. Their latest (2020–2021) notes that 87 percent of TimeBank members consider themselves to be better off by being members. The most common reasons given for this was that through the TimeBank they met people whom they would not normally have met, and connected with others – rather than having someone helping them. “People get a sense of value from helping others and feeling useful,” says Kate. “It’s not just about getting a job done for free. It’s about connecting with other people and that helps create a sense of belonging.”

This increasing sense of belonging was probably particularly important for the 17 percent of members who have physical health issues or a disability, a similar group who have mental health issues, and the large group (about a third), who were born outside of Aotearoa.

One feature of the TimeBank is organisation membership, and that can be of huge value to local NGOs needing volunteers.

Wendy Hewitt is the Coordinator for the Rural Driver Licencing Trust for Safer Mid Canterbury, which targets migrants in rural areas, and the volunteer coordinator for the Refugee Resettlement Service. She says that both organisations are pleased to be able to get volunteers through the TimeBank.

The Rural Driver Licensing programme needs a good supply, not only to act as driving mentors for their 40–50 learners each year, but also to provide a pick-up and drop-off service and act as babysitters while the learners attend the nine-week Road Code course.

The Refugee Resettlement Service, which has just joined the TimeBank, is also benefiting from TimeBank volunteers who take people shopping, organise gardening working bees, support English language learning help – and provide companionship.

“The TimeBank is very much about strengthening the community and connecting people,” says Wendy. “The new migrants, for example, develop relationships through meeting with TimeBank members.”

“I would say our organisation is about supporting people to put into place the 5 Ways to Wellbeing, promoted by the NZ Mental Health Foundation,” says Kate. They are things that everyone can do to
improve their wellbeing – Give, Be Active, Keep Learning, Connect and Take Notice.”

Getting even the small amount of money that it takes to keep the organisation going is always a challenge. Many funders don’t want to pay for staff – or a timebank which some funders see as a ‘club’ where people get things done for free. However, they have had grants in the past year from Lotteries, COGS and the Community Trust of Mid and South Canterbury.